RFK Jr. removes all current members of CDC vaccine advisory committee
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday dismissed an expert panel of vaccine advisers that has historically guided the federal government's vaccine recommendations, saying the group is 'plagued with conflicts of interest.'
The entirety of the 17-member Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, which advises the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the vaccine schedule and required coverage of immunizations, will be retired and replaced with new members, Kennedy announced in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. The HHS secretary has authority to appoint and dismiss ACIP members, who typically serve four-year cycles. But removing the entire panel prematurely is unprecedented.
Kennedy said that a number of the panel's members — traditionally pediatricians, epidemiologists, immunologists and other physicians — were 'last-minute appointees' of the Biden administration. 'Without removing the current members, the current Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028,' he wrote.
ACIP members are not political appointees. However Kennedy, a longtime critic of federal vaccine policy and vaccine safety, argued that the current group is rife with conflicts of interest and has not been transparent in its vaccine recommendations. ACIP recently considered narrowing the recommendations for Covid-19 vaccinations among children.
Kennedy had previously pledged to Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana and chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, that he would consult with the senator on filling key roles on vaccine advisory boards.
A spokesperson for Cassidy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The committee is scheduled to meet on June 25 to discuss vaccinations against Covid-19, RSV, influenza, HPV and meningococcal disease. HHS said the meeting will still take place, giving the agency roughly two weeks to fill its advisory panel.
'Appointing people this fast means they were not properly vetted, and there is no real time to check conflict of interests issues,' Dorit Reiss, a professor of law at UC Law San Francisco, told CNN. 'This will not restore trust in vaccines, and is not design to do so.'
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